Northwood’s Gunn competes in three events at state

Northwood senior athlete Kyle Gunn is competing in three events during the weekend’s state track and field meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.

“Number 1, he’s really fast and he’s quick,” Northwood football coach Ken James said of his 5-10, 160-pound senior quarterback last fall.

No one questions Gunn’s speed or athleticism. One of three events Gunn is competing in at state is a field event — the high jump. His second event is the 110 meter hurdles.

Gunn is also part of the Northwood 4x200 relay team that also includes sophomore Seth Dunbar, senior Spencer Guerrero, senior Chris Keith, and Gunn.

During the Division III district meet at Eastwood, the Northwood 4x200 relay team of Dunbar, Keith, Guerrero, and junior Brad Minkowski won a championship in 1:33.68, outdistancing a second place team from Toledo Christian by over three seconds.

Gunn joined the team at the Tiffin regional as the Ranger foursome finished a close third (1:31.22), behind Archbold (1:30.99) and Pandora-Gilboa (1:31.2), qualifying them for the state meet.

Gunn said he had improved his skills by attending camps at Bowling Green State University last summer. Gunn ran a 4.48 40-yard dash at the BGSU combine, where football coaches were showing interest in him. Gunn is headed to Ashland University in the fall on a football and track scholarship.

“They were interested in me as a wide receiver. I was shocked. I didn’t know I had that potential. I did well with my speed, and I can catch. I probably need to work on my route running because I’ve never really done it,” Gunn told The Press.

At this year’s TAAC meet, Gunn won three events as the Northwood boys were runner-up, following Toledo Christian (187) with 129½ points. Gunn won the 100 (11.2), 200 (22.4), and high jump (6-2).At the district meet, Gunn won the 200 in 23.64 and finishing second in two other events, qualifying him for the regional meet in three events.

At the regional, Gunn was second in the 100 hurdles, missing first place by just over a tenth of a second. Cory-Rawson senior Lucas Worstman won in 14.6, and Gunn followed at 14.71. Gunn qualified for state in the high jump by finishing in a tie for fourth place with a leap of 6-3.

As a result of the Ranger relay teams and Gunn’s efforts, Northwood finished 12th at the regional out of 41 teams that scored. Pandora-Gilboa was first with 51 points, and just ahead of Northwood (25) in 10th place was Columbus Grove and Cory-Rawson with 26 points each.

As a junior, competing for the Rangers’ track and field team, Gunn high-jumped, ran the short sprints, both hurdles events and was on the 4x100 relay team. He was the TAAC champ in the high jump, the 200 and the 4x100, and broke the school record in the 110 hurdles at the district meet. He also broke the school’s long jump mark, leaping 19-8 – on his first attempt.